Judge Throws Out Alec Baldwin Manslaughter Case
A New Mexico judge has dismissed involuntary manslaughter charges against Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin, ruling that the prosecution withheld crucial evidence.
In October 2021, Baldwin fired a revolver while rehearsing a scene on a film set, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin denied wrongdoing, saying he had been assured the gun did not contain live rounds, and was safe to use.
The prosecutors argued in court that Baldwin “violated the cardinal rules of firearm safety.” The actor’s defense team, meanwhile, described the incident as an “unspeakable tragedy,” but stressed that Baldwin “committed no crime” because live rounds were never supposed to be delivered on set, according to ABC News.
The defense team asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing that the prosecution failed to disclose that it had been given a batch of rounds when Baldwin’s lawyers requested a review of ballistic evidence. Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer agreed that it was a major flaw in the prosecution’s handling of the case.
“The state’s wilful withholding of this information was intentional and deliberate,” Sommer said. “This disclosure over the course of trial is so late that it undermines the defendant’s preparation for trial. There is no way for the court to right this wrong.”
The high-profile trial has brought attention to workplace safety across film sets and prompted discussions about the use of firearms during film production.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer on the Western movie Baldwin was working on – named ‘Rust’ – was sentenced to 18 months in prison in April. She was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter after loading Baldwin’s revolver with live ammunition.
Russian Forces Destroy Ukrainian Explosives Plant and Radar Station
The Russian Armed Forces struck a factory producing explosives for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (UAF) during the special military operation in Ukraine, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported on Sunday.
“Tactical aviation, unmanned aerial vehicles, missile troops, and artilleries of the Russian Armed Forces destroyed a P-18 radar station, a factory producing explosives, and UAF personnel and military equipment concentrated in 136 areas,” said the ministry.
Meanwhile, units from the Dnepr Battlegroup have eliminated up to 105 UAF soldiers, a US-made 155mm M777 howitzer, two 152mm Msta-B howitzers, an Enclave-N electronic warfare station, and two UAF field ammunition depots, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported.
“Units from the Dnepr Battlegroup pounded the personnel and equipment of the 65th and 118th mechanized brigades of the UAF, the 35th Marine Brigade, and the 124th and 126th territorial defense brigades in Novodanilovka, Malaya Tokmachka in the Zaporozhye region, Tokarevo in the Kherson region, and the city of Kherson. UAF losses amounted up to 105 military personnel, three vehicles, a US-made 155mm M777 howitzer, two 152mm Msta-B howitzers, an Enclave-N electronic warfare station, and two UAF field ammunition depots,” detailed the Russian military department.
Russia’s Tsentr Battlegroup defeated 10 Ukrainian brigades, repelled five counterattacks, with enemy losses totaling up to 355 soldiers, said the ministry.
“Enemy losses amounted up to 355 troops, a US-made M113 armored personnel carrier, three pickup trucks, a US-made M777 155-millimeter howitzer, a 152-millimeter Msta-B howitzer, a 122-millimeter D-30 howitzer, and a US-made AN/TPQ-37 counter-battery radar station,” the ministry tallied.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Vostok Battlegroup gained favorable advances, defeated five Ukrainian brigades, repelled two counterattacks, and eliminated over 140 Ukrainian troops in the past 24 hours, added the ministry.
Russia’s Yug, Sever, and Zapad battlegroups eliminated close to 1,500 Ukrainian fighters in the Kharkov Region, and the Donetsk People’s Republic, over the past 24 hours.
The Yug Battlegroup also destroyed a Polish-made 155-mm Krab howitzer, multiple US-made 155-mm M198, UK-made FH-70 howitzers, and other arms in the DPR, cited the ministry.
The Sever Battlegroup repelled eight counterattacks in the Kharkov Region, according to the ministry’s report. “The enemy lost up to 205 troops, two pickup trucks, a US-made 155-mm M777 howitzer, a 152-mm D-20 gun-howitzer, a 122-mm D-30 howitzer, a 100-mm Rapira anti-tank gun, a Plastun signals intelligence station, and two Anklav electronic warfare stations,” the report read.
Additionally, the Zapad group of troops eliminated up to 590 Ukrainian fighters in the Donetsk People’s Republic.
Watch Biden Self-Immolate During Ridiculous ‘Big Boy’ Press Conference
Alex Jones breaks down how Democrats are even more determined to oust Joe Biden after his train wreck of a NATO press conference, where he referred to Ukrainian President Zelensky as Putin and Kamala Harris as Vice President Trump.
Watch Biden Self-Immolate During Ridiculous ‘Big Boy’ Press Conference pic.twitter.com/KBahHdATyO
— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) July 12, 2024
BREAKING: Elon Musk Exposes Secret Illegal Global Censorship System
Elon Musk exposed how the EU tried to install a backdoor censorship panel to X that would have blanket power to determine what information is allowed on the platform. Alex Jones breaks it all down!
BREAKING: Elon Musk Exposes Secret Illegal Global Censorship System@elonmusk pic.twitter.com/9kj2euqDtS
— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) July 12, 2024
Scientists Call for Geoengineering of Glaciers To Address Climate Change
The scientific community should urgently pursue research into geoengineering of glaciers, according to a new scientific white paper.
According to the white paper, research into geoengineering of ice sheets in the Arctic and Antarctic must be undertaken now, before humanity faces a catastrophic rise in sea-levels that could provoke panicked decision-making to halt it.
“Everyone who is a scientist hopes that we don’t have to do this research,” said Douglas MacAyeal, a professor of geophysical sciences and co-author of the paper.
“But we also know that if we don’t think about it, we could be missing an opportunity to help the world in the future.”
The white paper emerged out of two conferences held on geoengineering—deliberate interventions to alter the planet’s climate—at Chicago and Stanford University. The conferences were organized by the newly formed Climate Systems Engineering initiative at UChicago, which “seeks to understand the benefits, risks, and governance of technologies that might reduce the impacts of accumulated greenhouse gases,” according to a press release.
The scientists at the conferences advocated for two major types of geoengineering to be investigated. The first type consists of “curtains” moored on the seabed to prevent warm water from undermining ice shelves. The biggest threat to ice sheets is not warm air, but warm water,
The second type involves attempts to reduce the flow of meltwater streams that run off ice sheets. This could be achieved, for example, by drilling deep into glaciers, either to drain water from the glacier bed and prevent it from affecting the glacier, or to try and freeze the glacier bed artificially.
The report notes that both approaches are totally untested and their advantages and disadvantages, including potentially environmental disruption, are unclear.
The report calls for any investigation into geoengineering solutions to be conducted in an equitable manner, with input from all the world’s nations. This would involve “robust participation of sociologists, humanists, ecologists, community leaders, scientific and engineering governing bodies, international treaty organizations, and other relevant stakeholders in guiding the research.”
Geoengineering has received increasing coverage in the news in recent months, for good and bad reasons.
First, the good. In a welcome development, Tennessee became the first state in the US to ban geoengineering, including attempts to modify the amount of solar radiation reaching the earth, whether by using physical barriers in the high atmosphere, through spreading reflective chemicals in the sky, or by practices like cloud-seeding, which is used to increase the amount of rainfall over a particular area.
Now, the bad. It’s becoming clear that a shift is taking place in the scientific community and government, as the dangers of geoengineering are being reconsidered in light of the supposed “inevitability” of catastrophic climate change. Many influential figures now believe that the massive risks of geoengineering are worth taking, even if they only buy some extra time for even more sweeping changes to the global regime of carbon-emission reduction.
In February, The Wall Street Journal published a detailed report on three ongoing geoengineering projects taking place across the globe, with a mixture of government and private funding.
In Australia, researchers from Southern Cross University are releasing a brine mixture into the sky to create larger, brighter clouds that will reflect more sunlight and reduce local temperatures. The project is funded by the Australian government, universities, and conservation organizations.
In Israel, Stardust Solutions is testing a delivery system to disperse reflective particles at high altitudes, again to reduce solar radiation. The startup is currently testing the system indoors but will move to outdoor tests in the “next few months.”
And in the US, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute plans to add 6,000 gallons of sodium hydroxide to the ocean off Martha’s Vineyard. They want to produce a “carbon sink” that sucks carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and into the sea, storing it there. The U.S. government and private sources fund the project. The release of the chemical will require further approval from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Even more worryingly, private companies and individuals are experimenting with geoengineering, without government support or approval. In January 2023, a California startup called Make Sunsets admitted to launching test ballons in Mexico containing sulfur dioxide, a chemical that is of great interest to geoengineers because of its ability to reflect solar radiation in the atmosphere.
Although the test launches were greeted with anger by the scientific community and the Mexican government, the CEO of Make Sunsets, Luke Eisen, was unrepentant, and said that soon his company would start releasing as much sulfur into the atmosphere “as we can get customers to pay us” to release. The startup offers a “cooling credit” system on its website where customers can pay $10 for a gram of sulfur dioxide in a balloon’s payload.
BREAKING: Biden And Obama Locked In Blackmail War, Says Trump Insider
Israeli Newspaper Says Country Is ‘Collapsing’ as 46,000 Businesses Shutter
Roughly 46,000 Israeli businesses have shut down since October 7, according to the Hebrew-language newspaper Maariv.
The Israeli economy has been declining rapidly since it launched its campaign in Gaza,particularly after the Yemen Ansar Allah movement (aka Houthi) and the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon have been taking action in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.
The Houthis have blockaded the Red Sea from ships it says are connected with Israel or the United States. Because of their actions, the southern port of Eilat –the country’s busiest port before the war– has been virtually shut down since October 2023. Exacerbating the situation further, foreign tourism has also collapsed during the war, and as of December, nearly half a million Israelis have left the country and that was before tensions inflamed significantly between Iran and Israel.
Meanwhile, the Ansar Allah movement has been attacking Israel’s north, forcing tens of thousands of Israelis to evacuate the area, virtually wiping out businesses in the area.
However, businesses around all of Israel are struggling, the paper said, with construction and ancillary industries being hurt the most but it noted that nearly every industry is being affected.
Yoel Amir the CEO of Coface Bdi, a services and credit risk management firm, told the paper that they estimate 60,000 Israeli businesses could shut down by the end of the year.
“This is a very high number that encompasses many sectors. About 77 percent of the businesses that have been closed since the beginning of the war, which make up about 35,000 businesses, are small businesses with up to five employees, and are the most vulnerable in the economy,” Amir said.
In December, South Africa brought a case against Israel in the International Court of Justice, accusing it of genocide. Since then, a dozen countries have joined it and many more have publicly welcomed the case.
More than 38,300 Palestinians have been confirmed killed and another nearly 88,300 have been seriously injured in Gaza since Israel began its campaign, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
That number is largely assumed to be a massive undercount because of a lack of health services and thousands who remain missing are presumed to be buried under the rubble. A recent study by the British medical journal The Lancet estimates that more than 186,000 Palestinians have likely died as either a direct or indirect result of the Israeli campaign.
Elon Musk Exposes Secret Illegal Global Censorship System